Credit: CBS13 Sacramento

AnimalsEnvironment USA13. December 2019

Bugs Work for Scientists to Make Car Oil and Protein Powder Out of Old Pizza

A new company in Davis, California in the United States is transforming the agriculture industry in a fight towards sustainability: they’re feeding food waste to insects to create green products such powder protein – or even car oil.

“There is a lot of agricultural waste produced in California. We want to take that waste and grow insects,” says Lydia Palma, CFO of the company, Biomiltus, located at the University of California, Davis. Biomiltus says that this strategy would benefit the environment and may significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The lab takes larvae – a black soldier fly – and feeds them unwanted food such as old pizza, which they consume very quickly. Once they’ve grown, the lab employees extract oil from them. And once their lifespan ends, they get turned into protein powder. Their use varies from machine lubricant oil for cars to sustainable and inexpensive animal feed.

“It’s a way of using insects like we would use bees for honey. It’s a positive way of using insects instead of just killing them,” Trevor Fowles, CEO of the company, calling the method “upcycling” from one food source to another. “We’re using insects to break down those wastes to turn into other products,” Fowles said. “Upcycling a food source and turning it back into another food source.”

Source:
Good Day Sacramento

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